So I got some piano/violin sheet music today...

[fnork]

One of my best friends, a violinist player, has a teacher who's turning 80 in a month, and she has lots of sheet music. She decided to give it away to my friend, and today both of us came home with lots of sheet music she gave us. Most of it is violin/piano. Some stuff are very well known - like all of Beehovens violin sonatas, one of Griegs and all of Brahms - but a lot is quite unknown. So I wonder if anyone here might know anything about these pieces, perhaps someone here has played them? Here's some of the sheet music I took with me:

Jean Francaix: Sonatine for piano and violin
Franz Drdla - Guitarrero
Manuel de Falla - Pantomime (for violin and piano)
Pablo de Sarasate - Spanish dances (no 7 a-moll, no 8 C-dur, + Malaguena and Habanera)
Stravinsky - Scherzo from L'oiseau de feu
Ravel - Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
Khatchaturian - Nocturne

Also got all of Mendelsohns "Lieder ohne worte" and Hanons "Le virtuose pianist" - solo piano.

Most of this music is little known to me... Anyone who knows if they're any good?

[DarkWind]

Manuel de Falla - Pantomime (for violin and piano)
Ravel - Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré

I have not heard these, but I can tell you from the rest of these composer's repertoire, you should at least try to sight read it, you might find an amazing gem. Falla's Music on the whole is sublime and beautiful, with powerful Spanish rythms and inventive melodies. Ravel, well, I'm the biggest Ravel fan out there, so of course I'm going to tell you to start practicing it! I have not listened to it before, sadly, but it was a gift to commemorate Faure's birthday. A bunch of other compsers contributed. Faure was very pleased with the Berceuse.

[fnork]

Just listened to Ravel's Berceuse, found out that I had it on CD. I'm a huge Ravel-fan just as you, Dark Wind, although I must say that this wasn't any of his best works in my opinion. Not bad at all, a bit boring perhaps. I'll have to listen to it again.

[Nightscape]

I am also a big Ravel fan.... I have even started a "Maurice Ravel" club with some of my friends.  Although they think his music is a little boring.

I haven't heard the bercuese either.... but I will.  I haven't heard one of the violin sonatas either( the posthumous one).

[fnork]

nightscape128: Check out the posthumous sonata! It's really nice, although not one of his greatest works. Overall it's a bit too long perhaps, but there are some really beautiful, Ravellian moments in it...
The other violin sonata is really good too, I think.

[DarkWind]

Could you post some mp3s of these pieces? All I need to complete my complete Ravel collection are those kinds of small pieces, and all his songs.

[Nightscape]

I definatly will listen to those violin sonatas.... as soon as I get a CD.  I've just recently acquired the string quartet and the piano trio... and they are FABULOUS... absolutely amazing!  Best trio and quartet hands down!

[fnork]

The slow movement in the trio is one of the most breathtaking things I've ever heard....
I might post some of those stuff I have, but the CD isn't with the best musicians I think. It includes the two violin/piano sonatas, one cello/violin sonata in four movements, tzigane (for violin and piano lutheal, which sounds really awkward but cool in a way), Berceuse, piece en forme de habanera (though badly played, too slow in my opinion), and Kaddisch (transcription for violin and piano of one of his songs, I think).

[Nightscape]

I've just recently got the cello/violin sonata.  It is a very strange work... even for Ravel!  It sounds like it uses pitch bends/microtones in some places.  And it definately has bitonal sections in it.  I'm in the process of warming up to it right now... it's a complex work so it will take some time.   

[madant]

Pablo de Sarasate - Spanish dances (no 7 a-moll, no 8 C-dur, + Malaguena and Habanera)
Most of this music is little known to me... Anyone who knows if they're any good?

Does anyone know where to get the piano transcriptions for Sarasate's pieces?

Thanks for ur time and consideration.

[indutrial]

I've not yet heard that specific Francaix piece, but I can confidently endorse him as a great twentieth century composer who carried forward the early twentieth-century French styles of Milhaud, Poulenc, and the other so-called neoclassical composers who bridged their music back to Mozart and the baroque without losing their footing with more modern approaches to harmony and rhythm. Like Poulenc, Francaix was a wiz at writing fun pieces for woodwinds. As far as violin writing goes, I love his String Trio and his Quartet for English Horn and strings.

The piece you mentioned has been recorded once, but I do not have the disc. Here is a link (that will hopefully work) that has a sound clip from AllMusic

https://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=43:99523~T2